Tuesdays with Morrie: 10th Anniversary Edition

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly 20 years ago.

For One More Day

As a child, Charley "Chick" Benetto was told by his father, "You can be a mama's boy or a daddy's boy, but you can't be both." So he chooses his father, only to see the man disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence. Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been crumbled by alcohol and regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits bottom after discovering his only daughter has shut him out of her wedding. And he decides to take his own life.

The Time Keeper

From the author who's inspired millions worldwide with books like Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven comes his most imaginative novel yet, The Time Keeper--a compelling fable about the first man on earth to count the hours.

The First Phone Call from Heaven: A Novel

The First Phone Call from Heaven tells the story of a small town on Lake Michigan that gets worldwide attention when its citizens start receiving phone calls from the afterlife. Is it the greatest miracle ever or a massive hoax? Sully Harding, a grief-stricken single father, is determined to find out. An allegory about the power of belief - and a page-turner that will touch your soul - Albom's masterful storytelling has never been so moving and unexpected.

Have a Little Faith

What if our beliefs were not what divided us, but what pulled us together? In Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom offers a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds - two men, two faiths, two communities - that will inspire readers everywhere.

The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto: A Novel

Mitch Albom creates his most unforgettable fictional character - Frankie Presto, the greatest guitarist ever to walk the Earth - in this magical novel about the bands we join in life and the power of talent to change our lives. It's an epic story of the greatest guitar player ever to live and the six lives he changed with his magical blue strings.

The Last Lecture

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave - "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" - wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have... and you may find one day that you have less than you think").

The Shack

Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in this midst of his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack one wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change his life forever.

A Separate Peace

Now a modern classic, this story of two boys' friendship at an exclusive New Hampshire prep school as it parallels the inescapable and escalating atmosphere of World War II, is intense and engaging to the last word.

The Girl on the Train: A Novel

Audie Award, Audiobook of the Year, 2016. Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. "Jess and Jason," she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good? Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut.

The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream

Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its simplicity and wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an Alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest.

The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal, a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss.

A Dog's Purpose: A Novel for Humans

After a tragically short life as a stray mutt, Bailey is surprised to find himself reborn as a rambunctious golden-haired puppy. Bailey's search for his new life's meaning leads him into the loving arms of eight-year-old Ethan. During their countless adventures, Bailey joyously discovers how to be a good dog. But this life as a beloved family pet is not the end of Bailey's journey. Reborn as a puppy yet again, Bailey wonders, will he ever find his purpose?

The Shack Revisited: There Is More Going On Here than You Ever Dared to Dream

Millions have found their spiritual hunger satisfied by William P. Young's number-one New York Times best seller, The Shack - the story of a man lifted from the depths of despair through his life-altering encounter with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now C. Baxter Kruger's The Shack Revisited guides readers into a deeper understanding of these three persons to help readers have a more profound connection with the core message of The Shack - that God is love.

The Four Agreements

In The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.

Fahrenheit 451

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family."

Monster

Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I'll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me: Monster.

Of Mice and Men

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck’s work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men (1937), creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and shared dream that make an individual’s existence meaningful.

The Light Between Oceans: A Novel

In 1918, after four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia to take a job as the lighthouse keeper on remote Janus Rock. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes only four times a year and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel.

Speak

From her first moment at Merryweather High, Melinda Sordino knows she's an outcast. She busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, a major infraction in high-school society, so her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't know glare at her. She retreats into her head, where the lies and hypocrisies of high school stand in stark relief to her own silence, making her all the more mute.

Man's Search for Meaning

Internationally renowned psychiatrist, Viktor E. Frankl, endured years of unspeakable horror in Nazi death camps. During, and partly because of his suffering, Dr. Frankl developed a revolutionary approach to psychotherapy known as logotherapy. At the core of his theory is the belief that man's primary motivational force is his search for meaning.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south - and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as a digital audiobook. One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the 20th century by librarians across the country.

1984: New Classic Edition

George Orwell depicts a gray, totalitarian world dominated by Big Brother and its vast network of agents, including the Thought Police - a world in which news is manufactured according to the authorities' will and people live tepid lives by rote. Winston Smith, a hero with no heroic qualities, longs only for truth and decency. But living in a social system in which privacy does not exist and where those with unorthodox ideas are brainwashed or put to death, he knows there is no hope for him.

Rocket Boys: The Coalwood Series, Book 1

The New York Times best-selling memoir that inspired the film October Sky, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir - a powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the dawn of the 1960s, of a mother's love and a father's fears, of a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space... and who made those dreams come true. Nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Homer Hickam's lush, lyrical memoir is a marvelously entertaining chronicle of triumph.

Publisher's Summary

Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret.

Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.

One by one, Eddie's five people illuminate the unseen connections of his earthly life. As the story builds to its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown last act of his life: Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure? The answer, which comes from the most unlikely of sources, is as inspirational as a glimpse of heaven itself.

In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom gives us an astoundingly original story that will change everything you�ve ever thought about the afterlife � and the meaning of our lives here on earth. With a timeless tale, appealing to all, this is a book that readers of fine fiction will treasure.

What the Critics Say

"Mitch Albom lifts us to a new level. You'll find here echoes of the classics � The Odyssey, for one � and that puts Albom's book in the best of company." (Frank McCourt)"This is the fable you will devour when you fall in love. This is the tale you will keep by your side when you are lost. This is the story you will turn to again and again, because it possesses the rare magic to let you see yourself and the world anew. This book is a gift to the soul." (Amy Tan)

After listening to the story the negative reviews have are sad. Sad in the fact that there are some people unable to be inspired by a simple story of the human spirit. This is another great accomplishment and will be a valued addition to my short list of potentially life altering stories.

"The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is a thoughtful and spiritually uplifting reminder that not all pain in life is bad, not all things we believe are true, and not all things that we feel we've failed in are failings. A review of one man's life at his death brings to light much of the suffering and anguish he carried with him, as well as bringing back to him the remembrances of those things he loved and held dear. The book is a meaningful treatise on the importance of every life and how intricate our interrelationship with others. A wonderful read/listen, and a bold reminder to value not only those around us, but ourselves.

i enjoyed the perspective of the narrator, especially the many vignettes in the main character's life. ...the links between them were somewhat weak and unexplained, however; i disagree with the reviews that say the book wasn't worthwhile. i enjoyed it a great deal, and i'm a tough sell.

Hard to imagine all the biting, negative reviews after I listened to it but "to each his own". I had heard of the general theme and approach on a talk show but thought it was pulled off better than I could have ever imagined. If you have lost someone close to death, this book offers some comfort and hope. Yes, its a fairy tale of sorts but the message that there is value in all lives and that it might all make sense at the end was meaningful and powerful for me.

This book really isn't as bad as many people would say on this site.. Though a lot of the story could have used some proofing and a few things moved around, some things added and some subtracted, the heart of the story is still there. This book I would say is a fair book only because the premise of the story is good, but the writing and delivery could use some work. My primary complaint is the narrator. He was terrible, and I think that he ruined it for some people with his annoying performance. That narrator should stick to being the announcer for automobile commercials.

Bottom line, the book wasn't THAT bad.. but on the other hand, it wasn't THAT good either.. A lot is left to your imagination in this case, and you crave for more information, which sometimes could be what some are looking for. I can honestly say I that enjoyed the book having said that. This book made me think and reflect on how I see things, and how that same image would be radically different for another individual.

Once in a while, I enjoy a shamelessly manipulative novel that leaves me delightfully swollen-eyed, red-nosed, and a little head-achey. I laughed at the review that mentioned "Brian's Song" - yes, it's very similar, but wonderful if you like an occasional light read that will engage you and make you smile and cry, even while knowing that it certainly won't win any literary awards. Better written than any Danielle Steele, and without the laughable sex scenes, it's very enjoyable for the times you'd rather have the guilty pleasure of a greasy cheeseburger than a filet mignon.

Why are there 5 people you meet in heaven? Because to this author 4 were only enough for a short story. The technique in this book was used before in "A Christmas Carol". And Dickens did much better with only three people. The book may steer your thoughts towards your own life. And that's good because while reminiscing you won't miss anything important in this book.

I purchased this book with great anticipation. I was looking forward to listening. It is a formula book of the worst kind. It has an interior formula--the structure of the book repeats the pattern over and over again. Man dies and goes to some kind of heaven, the colors change and someone gives him a cheap piece of philosopy or "advice" or "insight;" the colors change again and another person from his past steps forward with a new insight. It's kind of a repeat of the old "This is Your Life," but not as interesting. It simply bored me. So much was inaccurate--an 83 year old man would not be testing rides at an amusement park, for one thing. The philosophy was of the armchair variety. In short, I was disappointed!

After listening to this, I just felt manipulated, not entertained, and certainly not enlightened. The five "people" have no generic, alligorical, or universal application. Its just five people that one person knew. I was expecting, hoping for a story that would encourage me to look again at the people in my life in another way. Nope. Not here. Instead, pick five people in your own life, sit and think about them, then write one page on each. Yours will be better because it is real.

The most inexcusable piece of contrived writing I have listened to. Horrendously pedestrian; a nauseating patchwork of cliche that inspires only suicide. If I have one purpose on this earth it is to warn you away from this audiobook. I have suffered so that you may not have to. What makes this lame excuse for writing even worse is that it is accompanied by a string orchestra that sounds like they were ripped off the set of the movie "Brian's Song." The author takes no prisoners in his gut wrenching onslaught of guaranteed heart string pullers. He pulls every trick in the book - cute children rescued from death, never ending birthdays, abused children, impoverished immigrants, parental emotional abuse, war, teen angst, lost love, you name it. Save yourself and buy another audiobook...any other audiobook.